text: CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and actress Kathy Griffin had "special guests" as they helped CNN's audience welcome in the New Year.
  Cooper and Griffin had puppets of themselves before the live televised audience in Times Square while viewers waited for the ball to drop in New York City.
  "I've never felt this way about a puppet before," Cooper joked on camera. Griffin's puppet teased Cooper's puppet about drinking on camera.
  "I'm trying to get fired by 9:05 p.m.," Cooper's puppet shot back. Watch a clip from the interaction below courtesy of CNN.